How to discover your inner peace in 4 simple steps

The human mind is the most complex object in the known universe, with more neurons in our head than there are stars in the sky.

This incredible intricacy allows us to feel a wide range of emotions, think up countless thoughts, and dream until the end of our days.

But like every precious object in our life, the mind needs to be cared for. With the endless multitude of stimuli these days, vying for your attention at every point of the day, the mind can get muddled up and lost in a series of nonsensical thoughts, ideas, sounds, and images.

Eventually, you might even feel your brain begin to slow down.

To care for your mind, you must discover your inner peace, which begins with your inner silence.

With these 4 simple steps, we will discuss how you can realign your mind with that inner silence and begin clearing it up from within.

These steps begin and end with one thing: the words you say.

1) Only Speak Truth, Necessity, and Kindness

The endless chatter that plague us throughout the day is one of the biggest enemies of our inner peace.

We often find ourselves lost in a sea of mindless jibber-jabbering, saying things and talking about things that mean nothing at all, often just to hear ourselves speak.

And many times, much of what we say means nothing at all.

Think about it like this: are your conversations truly important? Do you really need to gossip about your neighbor’s affair with your friends; does your opinion on a certain reality TV show episode really matter?

While we’re not trying to dissuade you from talking about anything at all, it’s important to at least be more mindful of what you say and how much you say it.

Remember: the more you talk, the more energy you use. By conversing with other people, we need to make sure that our conversations actually mean something.

If they don’t, then we are doing nothing but adding to the noise in our mind, and who needs that?

2) Only Speak Things That Everyone Can Hear

Gossip. For many of us, it’s our one true bad habit. And it’s easy to understand why: it’s so fun.

It’s fun to be “in on it”, to know a secret that others shouldn’t know, or even to talk badly about someone that you might not be very fond of.

Gossip is our solution to a tiresome, boring day at class or at the office, because of course you want to hear about how so-and-so messed up or how so-and-so cheated on their partner or failed a test.

Not only does it make you feel closer to your fellow “gossipees”, but you also end up feeling better about yourself by talking about other people’s issues.

But the truth is, you don’t feel better about it. By sharing drama that isn’t ours to share, we end up regretting it and feeling guilty, especially when we are confronted with our own words.

Conversations such as these accomplish nothing, doing nothing to feed our mind and soul.

By spreading these conversations, we only work towards spreading negative energy, and this negativity pollutes our space and corrupts our inner peace.

If you see those around you gossiping, avoid it. You don’t need to be a proponent of that toxicity.

3) Only Speak What You Mean, and Mean Everything You Speak

White lies, excuses, roundabout explanations. There’s something about most people that you need to understand: we hate dealing with awkward situations, and we don’t know how to handle them.

Let’s say someone you don’t really like invites you to a party. You know that you won’t enjoy the party, but you don’t want to offend them.

So you make up an excuse to get out of the invitation. You dream up a story about leaving town or being busy with work, and you end up safely navigating out of that potential storm.

But are you truly satisfied with yourself? One lie becomes two, and two become three: eventually, you find that lying has become a normal part of the day.

Sooner or later, your words mean nothing, and no one trusts what you say. And if people can’t trust what you say, how can you trust what anyone else says?

An important part of keeping a quiet, peaceful mind is trust. We must be able to trust those around us, and believe in their self-proclaimed honest.

If we can’t, then we are filled with nights of guilt and second-guessing, wondering the truths about certain things.

And if you want to build that trust, the first person to start with is yourself.

4) Only Speak Inside What You Can Speak Outside

As they say, a person is their own worst critic. No one judges us more unfairly than ourselves.

We are the first to call ourselves fat, stupid, ugly, lazy, pathetic, and so on, and we tear us up inside with the words we would never say out loud.

While you might not be able to avoid self-doubt right away, there is a way to counter it: don’t listen to the inner voices.

The answer? No. Reply to that inner voice with your outer voice and say, “That’s not true.”

For more mindful and practical self-improvement advice on your Facebook newsfeed, like Hack Spirit on Facebook:

A quick message from Lachlan Brown, the founder of Hack Spirit

In 2018, the third year of Hack Spirit, I poured thousands of hours and considerable resources into creating these articles. It's a labor of love and remains free thanks to your patronage. If you found any value in these articles, please consider supporting what I do with a donation. Your support is what helps me to continue creating more Hack Spirit articles. To make a donation, select the amount and click the "donate" button below.

I’m Lachlan Brown, the founder and editor of Hack Spirit. I love writing practical articles that help others live a more mindful and better life. I have a graduate degree in Psychology and I’ve spent the last 6 years reading and studying all I can about human psychology and practical ways to hack our mindsets. If you to want to get in touch with me, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.